XLR8R

CLP (formerly known as Chris de Luca vs. Phon.o) has brought together a solid mix of guest artists for their upcoming full-length hip-hop release, Supercontinental, including Yo Majesty, Rayzaflo, Zion I, Data MC, Tunde Olaniran, Kovas, among others. The album doesn’t drop until November, but you can sample the first single here. “Spaceballs,” which features Damaged Good$, Cerebral Vortex, and Swedish ethno-techno specialist Spoek, sounds like CLP and crew took their synthesizer and beat box and launched them into deep space before recording. The alternately gruff and laidback delivery gives some needed gravity to the slow downbeat nuanced with whirring galactic tweaks and rich, vibrating, Dirty South synths. Lulu McAllister

Having been together for 19 years, couple and music-making duo Windy & Carl are well acquainted with the spectrum of emotion experienced in the world of love. Musically, they construct luscious, meandering soundscapes and blossoming tones that express both enchanting beauty and heart-wrenching despair. Due out on October 13, Songs For The Broken Hearted, the duo’s fourth album on krank, is a collection of love songs transmitting the highs and lows encountered during the wild ride. A song about revitalization of devotion and hope, “My Love” elicits thoughts of cuddling up with a warm, fuzzy blanket for an afternoon nap on a rainy day.

Sweden's got another fresh import, in the form of the two-woman, four-man outfit going by the name of Fredrik. Hard to know what to call this band's music, though it's clear the six members are more than up for experimenting with traditional pop's sound structure. Members cite everyone from The Fairport Convention to ~scape label boss Barbara Morgenstern as influences, and have leaked this track to give us a taste of the multi-instrumental, harmony-laden songs we can expect when the band releases Na Na Ni on October 28. Further listening opportunities can be found at the band's MySpace page.

Na Na Ni
01 Black Fur
02 Alina's Place
03 Hei Hei
04 1986
05 Evil and I
06 Ninkon Loops
07 Angora Sleepwalking
08 Na Na Ni
09 11 Years
10 Morr

Recall the year 2005, when Out Hud's Let Us Never Speak of It Again was released on kranky and we were all so enamored by the rock-club-meets-the-dancefloor-style music that we didn't stop to consider the title of the album–which foreshadowed the band's eventual split.

We no longer have Out Hud, but individual members of the band are still making music, and now we hear from Molly Schnick, cellist and founding member of the band who's currently working under a new alias, Jean on Jean. Schnick will release her self-titled solo debut next month, an album supposedly written to address the Out Hud break-up, and also one that allows Schnick to pursue new musical directions. Rest assured, those who were fans of her skills on the cello won't be disappointed, if this melodic gem is any indication. Maverick Newberry

When he's not running through fields and discovering creepy abandoned houses, Portland's Thomas Meluch is busy making experimental pop songs under his Benoît Pioulard moniker. The music on Temper, set to drop next week on the esteemed kranky imprint, pairs acoustic guitars with software generated static, smooth cello arrangements with staggered percussion, and Meluch cites everything from T.S. Eliot to Italian neo-realists as his inspirations for the album. "Idyll" sweeps through a broad palette of the aforementioned sounds, while Meluch's gently sung vocals add the finishing touches.

Temper
01 Ragged Tint
02 Ahn
03 Sweep Generator
04 Golden Grin
05 The Loom Pedal
06 Ardoise
07 Physic
08 Modèle d Eclat
09 Idyll
10 Brown Bess
11 Cycle Disparaissant
12 A Woolgathering Exodus
13 Détruisons Tout
14 Loupe
15 Taprye
16 Hesperus

Never mind the fact that this track is called "All Myself." Au architect Luke Wyland actually had a ton of help here, as well as on the whole of his sophomore full-length, Verbs, released earlier this summer. The Portland-based songwriter not only chose to surround himself with a proper band for the album, namely in the form of multi-instrumentalists Jonathan Sielaff and Mark Kaylor, but he also enlisted 30-plus people to swing by the studio and make a contribution. Thus, Verbs is a grandiose affair that includes guests spots from Parenthetical Girls, Evolutionary Brass Band, Becky Dawson, Team Love darlings A Weather, and, well, you should just listen to the album to get the full effect. For "All Myself," Wyland would settle, it seems, for nothing less than a full horn section, layers of percussion, flute interludes, and robust vocal choruses. It's sort of like the aural equivalent to eating a seven-course dinner. Maverick Newberry

As noted by XLR8R scribe David Bevin in our recent Portland issue, "nearly every second of Dragging a Dead Dear Up a Hill feels like an exorcism of sounds." A rather dream-pop affair, the album finds Liz Harris, the lone member of Grouper, making a departure from the restrained style that characterized her previous efforts and unleashing the ambient melancholy in full-force–particularly in the vocal department. Harris was often found whispering on past albums. Here, her smooth voice soars over stripped-down acoustic guitars and the track does feel as though she's releasing some kind of inner ghost that needed to be let out. Jennifer Marston

Now that he's not being mistaken for a notorious graffiti artist, Dilated People’s rapper and producer, Evidence, can get back to work and release his next solo venture. Next up is The Layover EP, which he’ll drop via Decon on November 25.

Evidence originally intended it to be a side-project he'd unleash in the form of five free downloads, but enthusiasm took over and he decided to turn the whole deal into an official release. Away Team member Khrysis was a major contributor to the project, including this, the title cut, which features him on the mixing board and Evidence on the mic. Maverick Newberry. Photo by B+.

As Brandon Ivers noted in a recent article on Flying Lotus, one gets the impression, when listening to the L.A. beatmaker's music, "that everything this guy does is m-e-l-l-o-w."

The same goes for this remix of Reefer's track, off his upcoming self-titled release. Reefer (nee Nick Thorburn, of Islands fame), is set to release a mini-album on October 14, with producer/engineer Daddy Kev, which will include eight new tracks and a couple of remixes courtesy of DNTEL and the aforementioned FlyLo. The latter's track was unleashed to the blogosphere today, and his trademark sounds–hazy, off-kilter beats, laid-back tempos, and what could be ocean waves–are all over this cut.

Reefer
01 The Simplest Way
02 May Baleen
03 Let It Go
04 Five Hundred An Ounce
05 Crony Island
06 Hit and Run
07 Blue Moon
08 Until We Meet Again
09 Hit and Run (DNTEL Remix)
10 Let It Go (Flying Lotus Remix)

Erstwhile member of the Hiro Imperium family, Opio, has been steadily dropping tracks off his sophomore album, Vulture's Wisdom, Volume 1, released earlier this year. Now it's time for the remixes. Besides throwing in some clips and blips from the 1972 blaxploitation film, Superfly, Opio also enlisted help from several friends on this remix. Fellow Hiero crew member Del the Funky Homosapien showed up to guest, as did Detroit veteran Guilty Simpson, and The Architect, who produced Vulture's Wisdom.